|
|
CHICKASAW COUNTY Another IAGenWeb Project |
|
|
|
|
|
CHICKASAW COUNTY Another IAGenWeb Project |
|
|
|
(From Iowa History Project on "How Pioneers Lived")
With regard to roads, there was nothing of the kind worthy of the name. Indian trails were common, but they were unfit to travel on with vehicles. They are described as mere paths about two feet wide, all that was required to accommodate the single-file manner of Indian traveling.
An interesting theory respecting the origin of the routes now pursued by many of our public highways is given in a speech by Thomas Benton many years ago. He says the buffaloes were the first road engineers, and the paths trodden by them were, as a matter of convenience, followed by the Indians, and lastly by the whites, with such improvements and changes as were found necessary for civilized modes of travel. It is but reasonable to suppose that the buffaloes would instinctively choose the most practical routes and fords in their migrations from one pasture to another. Then, the Indians following, possessed of about the same instinct as the buffaloes, strove to make no improvements and were finally driven from the track by those who would.
Contributed by Leonard Granger Transportation In Iowa Before The Railroads Click Here For History Of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, By Robert Herd Fairbairn In Which A Scattering of References May Be Found On Early Transportation These Pages are Willed to the
IAGenWeb |